BTS complete theory: Blood Sweat & Tears
This whole theory is about BTS and their music videos, short films, solos, lyrics. The pictures of the boys are ALL FROM THE MUSIC VIDEOS. I do not own them.
I will only explain their meanings and connections.
(There are mentions of death, suicide etc. If you are uncomfortable with that, then I would not recommend reading this.)
I will post the explanation to each mv separately but please be careful to follow the order of the explanations because otherwise it won’t make sense at all.
Read BTS complete theory: Boy Meets Evil first.
Now to Blood Sweat & Tears:
The painting on the picture is called The Fall of the Rebel Angels and it shows the fight between the good and the bad angels (fallen angels), which brings us to the concept of Blood Sweat & Tears.
We know that throughout the story, the situation of the boys is getting worse and worse and they’re forced to fight against those depressive/suicidal thoughts and the aggressions (Suga - fight). But soon they can’t endure it any longer and they feel the need to let out those negative things. So they start to do bad things, they start to sin. We don’t know exactly what they do but it is for sure that they commit sins. Though, that doesn’t apply to each member. There are innocent ones.
So in Blood Sweat & Tears, the difference between wanting to sin and resisting against sinning is shown (=> a fight between good and bad angels).
But the thing is, this entire mv takes place in a world in between life and death. (this is also mentioned in Demian). It’s a world where you have to decide. And this all happens after Jin fully realised that he is dead, which concluded into his dream world falling apart. So after realising, he’s in the world in between life and death where he has to decide between good and evil. The difference between Jin, V, Jungkook and Rap Monster, Jhope, Jimin, Suga is that one group comes from the realm of death, while the other one comes from the realm of life, and they meet in the world between those two realms. Of course, this all indirectly happens in their mind and in reality, they’re not together.
In the middle, we again have the painting that shows the fight between good and bad angels (fallen angels). The name of that painting is The Fall of the Rebel Angels.
On each side of it we see entrances, one being black and the other one being white. So you either choose to sin and go through the black entrance, or you choose to resist and go through the white entrance.
And Jin is right in the middle, which makes it seem as if he can’t decide.
And here we again have evil (left statue) and good (right statue).
The meaning of a swing is:
So basically, the symbol of a swing is the exact opposite of “youth is never coming back” (= means that one will never be innocent and fully happy again, because they’re now a part of the dark (maybe even evil) world.)
Here is one more important thing about this scene. Behind Jungkook we see a painting:
It shows a man with wings lying in the arms of a woman. And this brings us to the Greek mythology.
In the picture we see Icarus, but before I explain the meaning of the painting let me tell you the story of Icarus.
That’s the story of Icarus. But the concept of having wings is further explained in DEMIAN.
This is important for later.
The fact that Suga is sitting on thin glass, shows us just how close he is to falling into the abyss/into darkness. Meaning: how close he is to fully giving in to the temptation of letting it all out by sinning. The cloud around him shows that he can’t think clearly. There is something blocking him from thinking rationally. That something being all the negative emotions.
Even my blood, sweat and tears
Even my body, heart and soul
I know that it’s all yours
This is a spell that’ll punish me
And this part is again about the girl, meaning that it’s from Jin’s point of view. He talks about how everything about him loves that girl and how that is his punishment.
These are all the things that Rap Monster wants. For example, reassurance. He wants to be reassured that everyone is fine since he is the one who has to take care of all of them. (you’ll see more to that)
This means that all of these colours are supposed to be temptations. Meaning that evil tempts them by making them believe that they could get what they want (the colours represent what they want) if they take the evil path.
Then we see mixed colours.
Behind Rapmon we see the colours yellow and red (and a little bit of orange). You see colours always have either a negative or a positive meaning. And the negative meanings of those three colours are:
Red: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.
Yellow: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide.
Orange: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity.
Let’s take a look at yellow, so that I can explain. Above, it says that this colour is a symbol of suicide and right next to Rap Monster we see the mirror with the message “you need to survive”. Meaning that the colours behind Rap Monster express his feelings, whereas the mirror tells him what he has to do.
We already talked about in what kind of emotional state Rap Monster is after Jin’s death. He feels pressured by the fact that he has to be there for the boys, since no matter how hard he tries to help them, he fails and the boys fall deeper and deeper into darkness. And that had been his biggest fear. He had been afraid of watching the boys suffer and failing at helping them. But as said before, Rap Monster himself has depression because of Jin’s death and the pressure he was put under.
In the real world, these colours represent their emotional pain/fragility, whereas in the world in between, the colours represent what they want, the emotions that they want to feel. These colours start tempting them.
And we see how Rap Monster gives in and drinks the liquid.
We said that in this “world in between” they have to decide between good and evil. Rap Monster chooses to drink this green drink, which is supposed to be something forbidden (Why forbidden? Because, as said before: all of these colours are supposed to be temptations. Meaning that evil tempts them by making them believe that they could get what they want if they take the evil path.)
By accepting something forbidden, he also accepts evil.
The lines he sings during those scenes:
Peaches and cream
Sweeter than sweet
Chocolate cheeks
And chocolate wings
But your wings are wings of the devil
In front of your sweet is bitter bitter
As you can see, the lyrics are about the girl (similar to Boy meets evil). Just like I NEED U the lyrics don’t have much to do with the music video. It is true that both the lyrics of Blood Sweat & Tears and the mv are about temptations, but they’re not directly connected. The lyrics are about how the girl tempted Jin (as you can see above) but the music video is about how evil tempts the boys to choose the wrong path by making them believe that they, for example, will feel relieved (the colours).
As you can see, we have a statue behind Jhope. Now what does this remind you of:
So this statue again is related to Icarus. (Why they keep mentioning Icarus will be explained soon)
Then, we see V lying under a thin cover/blanket.
Continuing:
We again see the colour green, and just like Rap Monster Jungkook swallows it. Meaning that he too, accepts evil.
These are thing that Jungkook wants.
Jhope is sitting on the chair and the black water can’t fully reach him. Which also could be interpreted as the dark/evil, suicidal thoughts (the water) that can’t reach him because he’s still has hope (=innocence=feathers). Another reason why it can’t reach him is because Jhope has his thoughts under control. Because unlike the others, he had been dealing with depression for far longer.
There is an apple and on the other picture there is a chalice
As seen, apples are a sign of temptation and sin (apples are also mentioned in Demian). And on each plate, we see an apple.
The chalice:
Here, the chalice, just like the apple, represents temptation. (I’ll show you later on). And each member has a chalice.
All these things right in front of them are tempting them to sin.
First Jin takes the grail and then the boys follow, but just before drinking, he stops and looks at his left:
The colours in the background mean:
YELLOW: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide.
VIOLET: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority.
Pink:
ORANGE: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity.
RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.
The we see Jhope looking to his left and shooting the arrow and:
The arrow hits V but instead of blood we see colours:
So first of all, their meanings:
BLACK: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness.
BLUE: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness.
VIOLET: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority
Now why is Jhope shooting V?
And by doing this, Jhope tried to ward off the evil inside V, that’s why instead of blood, these colours (look at the meaning of each colour) appeared.
(more to that in the Japanese version)
And the reason why Jin stops and turns around is because he notices Jhope’s arrow. He notices what Jhope is trying to do and it reminds him of what is wrong and what is right, which is why he stops and doesn’t drink.
I already said that Jhope is supposed to be one of the innocent and good ones (but he still has suicidal thoughts and depression – the black water), which is why he takes it upon himself to help V and tried to ward off the evil inside of him.
Now let’s come to the most important part:
Before it was only Suga sitting on top of the thin glass.
But now Jimin joined him. In his hand, he’s holding an apple (temptation to sin), whereas Suga is holding a blindfold. And the cloud around Suga disappeared, meaning that he’s now thinking clearly – or better said he’s sure of what he’s doing.
Now, what is he doing?
Jimin holding the apple means that he’s close to giving in to the temptation, but there is still something holding him back, that something being the hope he still has inside of him. Jimin thinks that the beautiful times will come back again.
We see Suga holding a blindfold, because he wants to cover Jimin’s eyes. He wants Jimin to close his eyes to the reality, to the fact that sinning is evil, and give in to the temptation. He wants Jimin to stop hoping for something that will never happen, something that will only cause him more pain the more he keeps thinking about it.
This was the exact moment he noticed. Alter that he decided to help Jimin.
The reason why Suga tells Jimin to “choose the path of evil” by eating that apple is because Suga genuinely thinks that he is helping Jimin by doing so.
Because Suga doesn’t want Jimin to keep all the pain inside of him in order to be able to hope (to stay innocent). He tells him to close his eyes, and let it all out, even if he has to sin.
Just like he did.
Before that, Suga himself tried to keep it all in, but then in one single moment, he lost it and hurt the person most important to him. And he didn’t even have the chance to apologise. So Suga wants to protect Jimin from the pain.
Here we see V pushing himself off the balcony and in the background another painting is shown. This painting is called “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”. It shows the fallen Icarus, after flying too high.
Okay, first thing you need to know is that V and Icarus are connected. They both give into the temptation (Icarus: flying higher even though he was told not to do so / V: losing control and killing his dad) and the both fall down.
But the reason why V is smiling as he falls down is because he is evil and he basically doesn’t mind it anymore. He fought to be innocent again but it didn’t work, so he completely lets himself fall into darkness.
YELLOW: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide.
Seeing the others give in to the temptation, especially Jimin and V, Jhope starts to doubt everything he believed in and loses hope.
Then we see Suga blindfolding Jimin, because in that moment Jimin started to believe what Suga had told him about giving in.
He looks so freaking beautiful :’)
But then Jimin starts struggling, trying to break free because he realises that he shouldn’t have listened to Suga’s “advice” but it is already too late. Not being able to see the truth anymore, he chooses the evil path.
And in the wings tour trailer we see this:
Which is why, one by one the hands are moving away. They start choosing the evil.
That is the reason why Jin reaches out for the balloon but youth is never coming back.
The meaning behind the colours:
BLACK: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness.
RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.
And once again, we hear Rap Monster’s beautiful ass English, quoting a scene from Demian. But if you want to know why he says that and what it means you have to read my Demian doc. Because I really can’t explain it otherwise.
The melody that Suga plays here is also related to Demian.
Then suddenly we see the boys running towards one exit.
And Suga pulls Jimin with him (Suga manipulating Jimin)
After giving in to the temptations, the boys all choose one exit. That exit leading to the path of evil. Here we see that Jhope also has given up.
V looks back to see Jin hesitating.
And we see that the last thin layer that covered V disappears.
Seeing Jin hesitate, V covers his eyes, trying to convince him to come along.
Then he sees the statue with the black wings. And just like how everyone was tempted with something they want, Jin is also met with something he desires. Wings. (will be explained in Awake)
He can have both the wings and the boys but he has to choose the wrong path for that. And in the end, he decides to give in, that’s why…
…by kissing the statue, Jin chooses the evil path.
V lost his wings after falling, just like Icarus. Both of them misused the power of their wings, which is why they lost them and because of this similarity, throughout the mv, we always see things that indicate Icarus’ story. (more to that in the J-ver)
RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.
BLUE: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness.
BROWN: Lack of humour, heaviness, lack of sophistication.
What once was calm, turned into a fountain of emotions.
These colours show that they’re becoming evil since they’re coming out of their bodies. Just like with V when Jhope shot him.
“Man muss noch Chaos in sich haben um einen tanzenden Stern gebären zu können” is a German quote by Friedrich Nietzsche. Translated: “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
This quote is from the foreword of one of Nietzsches works. It is telling people to overcome themselves and seek to be something higher than a human (an overman), which leads the journey towards self-mastery.
To become an “overman”, one has to accept and love the path they chose, not minding repeating their actions. Regret indicates the presence of resentment or fear, contradicting the idea of an overman, which is characterized by courage. Being capable of establishing one’s own rules and not accepting given values, is another requirement for becoming an overman. Only the people, who struggle against their surrounding environment and their reason for living in it, can have a chaos inside of them. That chaos is the needed mentality for creating new things.
In his book, Nietzsche talks about the “last human”, who accepts everything and due to decadence, is not able to create anything. According to him, there are three developmental stages of a human, those being: ape-human-overman. Since he was convinced that god “had died”, he replaced god with the overman. With that he wanted to urge the people to search for the godly things inside of them and in the world instead of concerning their thoughts with the afterword.
Of course, there is more to that quote, but I only mentioned what we need for the theory. And I tried my best explaining this, but if it’s still too confusing you can read Demian since both this quote and Demian have a lot in common.
Now, why is Jin right in front of this quote? As said before, there is a “last human” and an overman, and right now Jin has to decide between those two. He can become an overman by fighting against his fate and creating a chaos inside of himself.
And this is exactly what Jin had done until now. He had been struggling against his surroundings and his reason for being there (death) because when Jin killed himself it was “in spite of the moment” and he hadn’t thought it through. For one moment, everything had become too painful to bear. After his death, he realises that the members start suffering because of him and he himself wants to be with them. But it has to be in spite of the moment because otherwise he wouldn’t have any regrets. By creating a dream world, where he was still alive. He had been struggling against his fate.
But he caused his death and now he regrets it and fights against the thought of being dead (=not being with the boys). And someone who feels regret cannot become an overman, and he also can’t become the last human since he doesn’t accept his fate (which is dying).
Unlike V, who fought against his surrounding environment and his reason for living in it (his abusive dad). He fought and killed his dad. At first, he did feel guilty and regretted it (suicide) but in the end, he accepted it because he realises that no matter what he does he couldn’t regain his innocence. Unlike Jin, he also accepted the fact that he had committed suicide.
I know this might be extremely confusing, but this is the only way I can explain it. For you to understand it better you have to read Demian since these two are connected.
Next to Jin is the flower that represents restored innocence. In his reflection, we see his true self, who doesn’t regret the fact that he loved the girl and still does, even though it was her, who drove him into death. Then we see his reflection cracking showing that he decides to change his true self in the sense of him fully giving up his love. The Lily will be explained in Awake.
I know the end of this mv is extremely confusing… and it really can mean a lot of things but I’m trying to connect everything and these explanations are the ones that make sense the most (with the help of Demian)
Next: BTS complete theory: Begin Solo + Short Film
